Sir Jeremy Farrar is quite SAGE at Oct. 31 after he criticised the Government for not putting in social restrictions to limit Covid’s spread
After condemning England’s laissez faire response to the third Covid wave, the eminent scientist quit SAGE and shared a series critical tweets about Government that he wrote before his resignation.
Sir Jeremy Farrar liked a post in which ministers were accused of seeing old people as expensible’. This was around the time he resigned from No10’s scientific advisory board at the end October.
The distinguished epidemiologist also supported a tweet that criticized Tory MPs for not wearing masks to the Commons. He added: “Seriously, no wonder our stats have been so terrible.”
In the middle of October, Sir Jeremy liked a sarcastic post about rising Covid variants in Britain which read: ‘How could this happen in the face of mask wearing, ventilation, vaccine passports, preventing infection in school children… Oh.
In what appeared to have been a thinly-veiled jibe about the lack of social restrictions in England he shared a story with the caption: ‘Honeybees utilize social distancing whenever mites threaten the hives’
Sir Jeremy said that he had previously considered resigning as SAGE’s president last year, after ministers ignored SAGE’s call for a fire-breaker lockdown at the beginning the second wave.
The revelation was made in Spike, his book that was published earlier this years. It detailed the chaos at No10 at the beginning of the pandemic.
He was also involved in controversy when it was revealed that he was one the original ‘lab-leak theory’ deniers. He described those who doubted Covid’s origin as ‘conspiracytheorists’. He was also found to be connected to the lab in question.
Sir Jeremy said in a statement last night he had left SAGE in order to concentrate on his work at London’s renowned Wellcome Institute. He has been the director of the institute since 2013. He warned that the UK’s current state was ‘concerning’.
He had been actively lobbying for a Vaccine Plus strategy. It included stricter rules for mask wearing and expressed concern over the absence of government measures to reduce the spread.
Sir Jeremy quoted a MailOnline article from October 19: “Vaccine Plus.” Wear masks in public transport, indoor spaces and shops, with good ventilation. If possible, flexible work hours. COVID/Flu vaccine. Minor modifications can now prevent rises in cases, deaths or the need for Plan B. It is best to avoid it.
Referencing a separate MailOnline story about rising cases on October 28, he repeated his call for action: ‘We can all help reduce chance of Plan B by wearing masks public transport, crowded indoor places, as good ventilation as possible, by staying home if symptoms, support for people who have to stay home, vaccine when offered & supporting NHS.’
Sir Jeremy “liked” a sarcastic blog post about rising Covid variants. The post was posted in October and read: “How could this happen in front of mask wearing ventilation vaccine passports, preventing infected school children… oh!”
He was the sole “liker” of a post that accused ministers of viewing old people as “expensible” at the time he resigned from No10’s scientific advisory board at the end October
He shared a story last week with the caption: “Honeybees use Social Distancing when mites threaten the hives” (shown at top).
Sir Jeremy stated in a statement last evening that he quit SAGE to concentrate on his work at Wellcome Institute. But he had been publicly lobbying for a ‘Vaccine Plus’ strategy, which included tougher mask wearing rules (shown above, Sir Jeremy quotes a MailOnline article on October 19) and expressed concern at the lack of restrictions in place
Referring to a separate MailOnline article on October 28, which contained quotes from Sir Patrick Vallance and Sir Jeremy, Sir Jeremy reiterated his call to action
SAGE recommended that ministers get ‘hard early’ with restrictions like vaccine passports, masks, and working from home to avoid a major winter wave.
The Government has set out these measures as part of its Covid winter ‘Plan B’ but does not feel that the NHS is under ‘unsustainable’ pressure yet — despite cases running at nearly peak-second-wave levels.
Sir Jeremy stated in a statement last evening that he quit SAGE because’ministers had been provided most of the key science advice required over the winter months’.
Ministers were warned by him that the Covid crisis is far from over. The global situation is deeply troubling. The high levels seen in the UK of transmission remain alarming.
England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said he did not ‘read any more signal’ into Sir Jeremy’s resignation, other than that the scientist wants to concentrate on other work.
BBC Breakfast interview: He stated that he felt a lot of information the Government needed from scientists had been given to him and that he needed to refocus his work at Wellcome Trust.
“It’s a tribute and a tribute to Sir Jeremy as well as so many other scientists that have supported us so hard, for so long, and given such valuable, independent advice.
“So I don’t think that I read any more signal there than that Sir Jeremy recognized that most of the advice had been given, and he really needed back to the Wellcome Trust.
Professor Van Tam was asked if it listens to everything scientists have to say to it. He replied: “The Government has got to listen and listen to scientists. It has also got to take all kinds of advice from other sources. And it has to make really difficult decisions about what the best course is.”
“Science is really important, as is the economy and the functioning of society. These are difficult decisions. There are no easy choices. And there haven’t been for quite some time.
Sir Jeremy, an Oxford and University College London-educated scientist, had been one of the the driving forces behind the scientific advice that has guided the UK through the pandemic.
He was however controversial because he was one of the original “lab leak” deniers. In early 2020, he published a Lancet letter that effectively closed down scientific debate about Covid’s origin.
The row was reignited this summer when it emerged that he and 25 others who signed the letter had ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the leak was suspected.
Sir Jeremy took the letter out, calling the lab leak hypothesis a conspiracy. However, he has since softened his stance in light of multiple reports of a Chinese cover up.
Sir Jeremy referred to a BBC article titled “Covid-19 origins may not be known, US intelligence agencies claim” in a tweet dated October 30.
He wrote:I am more optimistic on identifying origins if there is open mind, international cooperation, data from the markets & animal trade routes, legal & illegal, early human cases & lab data. Plus continued work in animal sector & humans.
The previous day, he tweeted that there was a ‘critical need’ to ensure ‘labs are transparent and safe’, adding: ‘This needs international cooperation, sharing of information and trust.’
It comes as figures yesterday revealed that the UK’s daily coronavirus cases have started to fall again after a brief blip — but hospital admissions and deaths continue to rise.
According to the Department of Health’s daily updates, there were 33,865 new cases of infection in the country over the 24 hours ending Tuesday. This represents a 17.3% drop from the previous week.
The number of covid cases was slightly higher last week due to a recording problem in Wales. This means that the week-on-week decline in cases will be less dramatic. Daily infections in England fell below 30,000 for only the fourth time in four weeks.
Eight days in a row, infection rates dropped until yesterday. This was due to half-term testing being less thorough. However, there is increasing optimism that rising immunity levels will keep infections at bay even though schools are returning.
The latest hospital data indicates that there were 1,002 UK hospitalisations in October 29th, marking the fifth consecutive day of four-digit admissions.
The DOH reported Tuesday’s death toll of 293 in Britain, the highest since March 3, when 315 were recorded.
The department stated that yesterday’s toll ‘potentially” includes data from England for two days, which could have skewed it. Both hospital admissions and deaths are lagging indicators.
The Covid dashboard by the Government shows that over 50 million Britons have had their first Covid vaccine. Around 45.7 million have had two doses and 8.4m have received their booster third dose.